Scottish National Racing Pigeon Club

Arras Old Bird & Yearling National

For the last old bird national race of the season the SNRPC were at Arras in

Northern France this race also incorporates our Yearling National. The 448

birds were released on Friday 8th

July at 06.45 into a light West wind.

It was a fitting end to a magnificent season for Peter Virtue of Cockburnspath

by winning 1st, 2nd and 4

th open positions with a total of 9 pigeons in the open

result. Peter’s loft has been unstoppable this year Arras being his third

successive national win, not since 2005 have we had a loft in such relentless

form back then it was Walker & Wilson of Eye-Valley who swept all before

them and this season the Virtue loft has dominated the nationals. Peter has been

involved in pigeon racing for over 60 years and like everyone has experienced

its highs and lows but over the course of time he has developed this incredible

family of pigeons capable it would seem of flying the channel with ease and

return in super condition, hard or fast races they are there but I have to say

especially when the going does get hard that they really come into their own.

Peter’s method, management and breeding of his birds is meticulously planned

with nothing interrupting his routine, like everyone else he has his setbacks with

plans having to be altered and adapted due to loosing good birds to peregrines

and the like, for example since March to May this year he lost 13 to the

peregrine and out of these 13 four of them were birds that scored in Reims last

season another was his Gold Award winner Dark Charmer and as if this was not

bad enough his 2009 Lillers national winner was taken also too, losing so many

top class birds and yet still have the depth of quality in his team to achieve what

he has done this year after these setbacks is remarkable.

1st & 2

nd Section B, 1

st & 2

nd Open Peter Virtue Cockburnspath

The National winner a two year old dark chequer cock flown celibate was in

fantastic condition on his return he is a grandson of Champion De Cas the 1st

Barcelona Ace Pigeon 2009 owned by Steve and Leslie Wright’s House of

Aarden his dam is a granddaughter of Braveheart who scored 4 times from

Barcelona. He was earmarked to go to Reims this season but suffered a hawk

strike in one of the earlier races the feathers hadn’t grown back in sufficiently to

go to Reims so he was kept back for Arras instead.

The National Winner

1st open arras

The 2nd

open winner is a little different she was bred by Peters good friend Mike

Staddon they exchanged youngsters annually this 3 year old has the following

wins to his name prior to the 2nd

open win 2nd

open SNRPC Chelmsford 2014,

19th open Billericay2016, 38

th open Peterborough 2013 he also has many club

and fed positions. The sire is one of Mike’s Lou Woulter’s pigeons who has

bred many winners the dam is Sheer Class the dam of many winners and bred

from the best of Marcel Aelbrecht’s De Rauw & Sablon,

2nd

Open Arras

3rd

Section B 3rd

Open & Yearling National Winner

Andrew Lees Eyemouth

One of the great national lofts in the South East of Scotland is that of

Andrew Lees of Eyemouth, Andrew fly’s in the Eye Valley club and

the Border Fed of the Up North Combine with tremendous success he

has won no less than 6 national races in his time with many top ten

finishes too numerous to count. Andrew has had great success with

the Louis Cooreman pigeons he introduced from his good friend Joe

Clark of Kent. The Yearling National winner was bred by Joe and

sent up to Andrew his parents are direct Bob Fenech, he has been a

good performer for Andrew winning 3rd

club Oakham 297 miles and

then 1st club Oakham. He had 4 races up to Arras and was trained 2 or

3 times a week at 35 miles and was raced natural to a new hen.

The Yearling National Winner

1st Section C 25

th Open Chic Dinsdale Coaltown of Balgonie

Chic’s section C winner (Ceasar) is a 2 year old Mealy cock bred

from the following bloodlines 50% Delbar 25% Jos Thone and 25%

local Fife fancier Lou Mitchell. Interestingly this bird is another who

made a mistake as a youngster and went on to redeem himself later in

life he was lost for 3 weeks in a club race from Alnwick which is

around 70 miles to Chic’s loft he was then raced up to Huntingdon

292 miles as a yearling he has go on to win the following positions:

3rd

club Aycliffe 126mls, 4th

clun Leicester 261 mls, 4th

club 13th

section 42nd

open SNRPC Billericay Inland National 349mls and now

1st club 1

st kingdom RPA 1

st section C Arras 475 miles sent feeding a

16 day young bird and sitting again on 6 day eggs, there’s proof that

youngsters who have made a mistake are certainly worth another

chance particularly nowadays as there seems to be all sorts of

obstacles in their way even before they get to the first race.

Chic Dinsdale 1st sect C

2nd

Section C 38th

Open Davy Whyte Cardenden

Davy’s 2 year old blue cock was sent to arras sitting 5 days he had

most of the races in the fed programme this year including the

Billericay National in the week leading up to Arras he had 3 training

tosses from Anstruther, this was his first time on the prize list but he

has always been a consistent racer for Davy. His breeding is from

birds he took over from an old Cardenden fancier Davy Herd, the sire

of the 2nd

section winner is a very good blue cock who has won

national diplomas from Billericay, Arras (2) and Reims in turn his sire

was bred from Old Davy’s 5th

open Sartilly pigeon.

Davy Whyte Cardenden

3rd

Section C 41st Open Dean Bridges Milton of Balgonie

Here we have another loft in good form this year following up from

his 11th

open 2nd

section win out of the Inland National Dean’s 3rd

section winner is a 3 year old blue cock flown celibate his previous

wins include 22nd section 68th open SNRPC Chelmsford 338 miles,

82nd section 246th open SNFC Billericay, 8th section 40th open

SNRPC Arras last year and now 3rd section Arras this year. His Dam

was 7th section 21st open Arras.

Dean Bridges Blue Cock 2nd

section C

Peter Keogh Broxburn 1st & 2

nd Section D 26

th & 30

th Open

Peter’s winner is his good two year old mealy cock flown celibate he

had national diplomas from Buckingham,Billericay, Eastbourne,

Littlehampton and now Arras his sire was bred by Bob Dixon his dam

is bred down through Peter’s own stock. The second section winner is

also a two year old but a blue cock this time his breeding is John

Bosworth stock crossed with a John Callan of Lesmahagow hen now

10 years old but still continuing to breed strong robust youngsters she

is also the great grand dam of the section winner. Peter’s loft has been

very prominent in the nationals the last few seasons and he has

continued this great form throughout this year.

Peter Keogh’s Section D Winner

Peter Keoch’s 2nd

Section winner

3rd

Section D 47th

Open Jim Jack Falkirk

Great to see Jim winning 3rd

section from this one he is a great worker

for the sport and it’s nice to see him rewarded in this way. His winner

is a two year old cheq hen bred through his Jim Hannah of Blantyre

pigeons she was sent flying spare to Arras and was raced to Leicester

260 miles and trained 5 times from 40 miles before going to the

national.

3rd

Section C Jim Jack Falkirk

1st Section E 39

th Open Wilson & Jack Lanark

Robert and Davy have been one of the leading partnerships in the

West of Scotland for many years now with many great performances

to their name they are past national winners from SNRPC Massac.

The section winner is a 3yo Mealy hen timed at 20.42. As she was

going to be sitting overdue, she was given a 5 day old youngster, 3

days before basketing, sent with full wing, holding her 3rd

flights. As

a YB she had 5 races, 1st club, 2

nd fed Aycliffe and 4

th club

Wetherby. 3 races to Leicester as a yearling. 4 races as a 2yo, injured

at Otterburn come back race, preparing for Arras. This season prior

to Arras, she went to Wetherby and Kettering, and then 5 X 40/50

mile tosses, thanks to Willie Johnstone and Gordon Geddes. She is a

G/daughter of their B Chec hen, 3rd

sec 15th

open SNRPC Reims 2011

and a Mealy cock, a gift from John Alston, bred from his ‘Townfoot

Goodboy’ bloodlines, when paired to a Chec hen, purchased at Jock

Allan’s clearance sale. Dam of the Mealy hen was a Blue hen from

Phillipe Martin’s Bricoux bloodlines, another gift bird from John

Todd, Lanark. Robert and Davy are astute pigeon men and

complement each other well in the management of their birds and

both are real gentlemen besides.

Section E winner for Wilson & Jack

2nd

Section E 46th

Open John McFall High Blantyre

John timed his 3 year old cheq cock at 21.28 this was his first time

over the channel due to John being in hospital last season and didn’t

get his birds raced as he would have liked this year he had 5x races to

Kettering 270+ miles on total widowhood was then repaired and sent

8 days eggs having 6 x 50 mile tosses from Cockenzie East Lothian

finishing on the Sunday prior to basketing. Training from the same

spot in strong /moderate head winds enabled them to monitor the time

on the wing, improving daily from initial toss at 85 mins to 72 mins

on the final day. The 2nd

Sect winner is a son of the Rankin cock who

is also the g sire of the 3rd

Sect Reims this year. Dam bred by Billy

and David Davidson Coalburn who gave John the pick of the young

bird loft when he bought an empty pen at the

Larkhall/Kirkfieldbank young Bird Sale, the young bird was direct

from their Number 1 stock pair and although John refused to take this

1st round youngster, David insisted as he had offered him the pick of

the loft.

John McFall’s 2nd

Section E winner

3rd

Section E 51st Open W Watson Kirkfieldbank

Willie’s two year old chec hen was lightly raced having had 2 races as

a youngster at the yearling stage she was given 4 races up to

Peterborough and this season she had 5 races and timed out of

Billericay before going to Arras, her breeding is from local pigeons

Willie has had for years she was sent sitting 5 days her dam was

timed out of Burbure this year.

Willie Watson Kirkfieldbank

1st Section F 49

th Open C Gray Kirkintilloch

The Gray family have been involved with pigeons for many years.

Colin and his brother Maxwell (Maxi) first raced in partnership with

their mum and dad (Barbara and Jim) more years ago than we would

care to remember. Barbara passed away some 20 years or more ago

and Jim just last year. He had hoped to see the birds do well this year

but it was not to be, I’m sure he would have been very proud of

Colin’s section win.

This two year old blue hen is a lovely medium to small hen nice in the

hand. She was lightly raced as a yb, 3 races to 100 miles and as a

yearling, 2 races to 200 miles. This year she was paired mid-March

and had 3 races to Newark, 200 miles then left to go down on eggs.

She was kept ticking over with regular 25 mile tosses then had two 70

mile tosses the week before basketing. Her dam is George Harris of

Denny X A McGonigal and her sire Billy Holland X Robert Gray

(Colin’s cousin). The Robert Gray cock featured in a previous report

when he was 3rd

sect a few years ago. On that occasion dad Jim was

photographed. This cock has bred good pigeons every season since. 6

of the 10 candidates sent to Arras were timed. Colin asks that we

record his thanks to Maxi for his help with training.

Colin Gray 1st Section F

2nd

Section F 54th

Open M Luke & Son Port Glasgow

Mat’s loft has been in good form recently especially from Arras

where he always manages to get a good one his 2nd

section winner a

two year old chec hen is a daughter of his 2015 SNRPC Bronze

Champion hen when paired back to her nephew, Matt has high hopes

for this gutsy hen this is the second time she has returned from a

national race this year in almost darkness

Matt Luke Port Glasgow

3rd

Section F 63rd

Open Geddes & Hillis Muirhead

Gordon and Margaret are past winners of the extreme distance

national from Ancenis with their Dark cock Slakiewood Endeavour

this time their two year old black hen was timed at 05.59 to win 3rd

section this hen was bred out a half-brother of Endeavour when paired

to a Jan Aarden form the House of Aarden Invincible lines she had

only 1 race from Ayecliffe and 6 x 40 mile training tosses before

Arras and was flown celibate.

Gordon Geddes 3rd

section F

Billy Davidson Coalburn

Sorry to hear the news that Billy is in hospital at the moment, what a

great name in Scottish Pigeon racing the Davidsons are, real top class

fanciers, now due to Billy’s health David is in complete charge of the

loft and has been for some time now and yes they are still winning not

only for themselves but winning all over the country for other fanciers

also. We wish Billy well.

Benny Martin

We also hear that Benny is back in hospital let’s hope he is out soon,

best wishes from all your friends in the SNRPC Benny.

Reims Report Error

Apologies to Kilsyth fanciers Evan Jones and grandson Andrew who

won their Reims section I got my photos mixed up and used an old

one, well done lads on a great performance

Evan Jones and grandson Andrew 1st section E Reims

Lloyd Togneri

Peter Virtue and I have been giving Lloyd a hand with dispersing

with his super team of birds, happy to say he had a fantastic response

to his sale the birds all went very quickly, It was a sad task I have to

say, any genuine pigeon man would feel for him for what he has been

through this last few weeks since receiving the news that he had to

give the birds up on health grounds on a happier note he is feeling

better than he has done for a long time. Lloyd would like to thank

Peter for all his help not only with this but everything he has done for

him since he started back into the sport, Lloyd has thoroughly enjoyed

his short time with the birds he made many new friends and been

reacquainted with many old ones too he has a special mention for the

SNRPC he has great admiration for the club and president John

McFall who I know he admires greatly for his professionalism. Lloyd

still has loft equipment and 2xT3 clocks for sale enquiry’s to 01368

830427.

Duncan Knox

Press Officer